Small Group Communication Class

There are many problems that hinder good group dynamics. We don’t usually have the luxury of picking who we are going to work with on a team; dealing with different personalities and personal agendas are common challenges in working within a team. Other commons challenges like, poor leadership, bad communications, and lack of focus can be helped or eliminated by establishing team roles.

Whether groups are formed for social or task oriented purposes, the ability to produce and maintain a sense of affiliation, peer support and collaboration is important for overall group functioning. The cohesion of a social group is produced through the establishment of a set of group norms, which are later defined as a guide for conduct accepted within a group of individuals. However, in order for a group to perform and produce results, the team leader should guide his/her team through the proper stages of group development, which includes the following steps: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. Although teams should follow all these stages of group development, the forming and the norming stages are the most important,

Learning how to work effectively in a group situation is key to success in many professions as well as in social situations. Groups vary from each other based on the individuals that make up each group, all of us belong to various groups at one time or another. The roles that we fulfill vary from group to

Secondly, I want to mention our group climate. In my opinion, our group has a supportive climate. Each member is willing to help other members in the group to complete their tasks. Our group favors description compared to evaluation. Instead of criticizing others’ behaviors and ideas, we often tell our feelings about problems. All the group members always encourage each other to share their opinions and feelings with the group. Even though some opinions are too conflicting, the main purpose is trying to give all the members equal opportunities to talk about their ideas. Thus, the success of the group is the consequence from the equal contributions of all the members. Besides, in most of the discussions of our group, we are oriented toward problem solving; therefore, we look for the consensus of the ideas in order to solve the problems effectively and quickly. Because our group has many members who have senses of humor, we always maintain an interesting and comfortable atmosphere to gain assertiveness in the group. Sometimes, Ngoc and Phong share their experiences of how they solve their families’ problems. Through perceiving more deeply about each member’s own life, we have gradually gotten closer together; therefore, we are always honest and open to each other. Also, we do not criticize when a group member cannot finish his or her task as expected because there are always personal issues out of the class. In addition to

Next, the barriers that exist in group communication are premature evaluation of ideas, poor physical surroundings, too many people, poor timing, and stinking thinking. The different ideas made from the group need an evaluation at a certain time; this is done only after all the ideas have been made from the group. Poor physical surroundings can be a problem for group disruption in communication. In some cases the room could be too hot, too cold, too noisy, not adequate enough seating and lack of technological needs for the group to function. If the group is too large then the communication can be lost and equal participation will not occur (Beebe &Masterson, 2006). Poor timing also can be a hindrance to the group by not

In the article “Small Group Communication” Garth Pittman states that working in groups can actually be very helpful because it will get the job done faster, and develop skills that can be useful at work, school, and/or personal life. He clarifies that people will have different ideas and collaborate with one another to work well in the group. If they can get along well and manage to separate the work, then the project will get done on time without having any troubles. Pittman points out working in groups can get complicated. Few people in the group will not connect with the rest of the members. For those who aren’t used to being in groups can find themselves having a hard time getting use to it. The author believes that there is certain ways

After learning the channels of communication learners are placed into groups to design and deliver a short fifteen minute presentation on a range of subjects in which I provide. This is a positive teaching method to enable the learner to identify their skills and qualities which acts as a positive tool to help build their confidence and reinforcing their positive attributes and qualities. I then give them hand-outs (that are written at an appropriate level) of the sending and receiving of a message. This is a fully engaging and active lesson which I manage in a sensitive manner, making sure that the more withdrawn learners are comfortable the and not feeling under pressure. I give the learners constructive feedback on a one to one basis asking them to reflect on their indivual performances and evaluate what went well and what didn’t go so well. This also gives the learner to address any issues or difficulties that they have identified.

Being an excellent listener is one of the best ways to become a good communicator. Throughout the group work, the author demonstrated great communication skills when listening to her team’s different ideas and then taking them on board to create the best results. Fellow team members will appreciate good listening skills, and so in return, it will have a positive impact to the group’s mood, and encouraging them to be confident to speak up and say their thoughts as they know their ideas are being listened too.

Mrs. Johnson I would like to start off by saying congratulations on your new manager position within the company. In your managerial position, you will have four employees who have worked with the company for a period of time. The employees have worked and communicated well with each other. Each person puts each others needs and the companies’ needs before their own. While I have been their manager, they have been very productive and have met all goals that have been placed before them. Here are some tips on making your transition in becoming their new manager

There are many different kinds of groups that exist between college students that deal with communication they range from sports teams to many community or social groups. The type of organizations that are mostly found in many colleges today are Greek letter organizations. In this paper I will exploring communication within the realm of sororities. First, I am going to start with the history of Sororities, then I am going to write about how important it communication is during what sororities call the pledge process. Furthermore I am going to tell about the different things that sororities have, such as the symbols, colors and different things that may deal with communication. Even though all sororities have different representations for

Two things that could have gone better in our group. We did not have a gatekeeper so members that were quiet and not putting forth effort to the group messages and conversations on their opinions we would just use people's opinions who did speak up and were more vocal. The book states "A gatekeeper encourages less-talkative members to participate and tries to limit long-winded contributions by other members". In 'Ulu Maika long-winded contributions occurred frequently in conversations since others had very little input that they wanted to put in conversations most people just wanted to go with the flow of things longs as they knew we as a group was taking the correct precautions to prepare for the final product. We did not have agendas for each meeting. Some meeting were just put together when it was a time we felt one was needed. The book states "According to research, groups that engage in free-range discussion without an agenda change topics about once a minute". This would occur very little but at times when it did conversations would get so intense with whatever the topic of discussion was that we would trail away from the meeting about our assignment and into our own conversation longer than expected then we would have to restart the whole meeting

When doing so the other group members were active listener, by using their whole body verbally and nonverbal. Like facing the speaker and giving eye contact and try to avoided interruption. The group also acknowledges the thoughts of the speaker by giving constructive feed back. Due to the effectiveness of the group communication, we were able to build trust, respect and understand the issues and make decision for effective change. We illustrate this by coming together as a group one again to accomplish the goal we initially wanted to accomplish. Since the first organization that we had chosen was incorrect, so we had to make the necessary changes to accomplish our goals. The other effective feature is the purpose of the group. Kozier et al (2010) stated that the effective group purpose is when “goal, task, and outcomes are clarified. Understanding and modified so that members of the group can commit themselves to purposes through cooperation” (p.401). For instance, each individual was assign a task and knew what was to be accomplished. As group we all decided to meet at suitable day and time which was beneficial to all team members, because we could commit to the group and focus on what needed to be achieved.

Working in a group can be very difficult at times. Different people with different views may not always agree which one another. Throughout the various task I played the communicator. I made sure everyone was on track on what we wanted to do. I also made sure people was okay and happy in the role they was playing in the group. My group worked together in collecting ideas from one another and making it into one.

Effective group communications come in forms of verbal and non-verbal techniques. Essential parts of the entire group’s contribution are that the group contains full participating members, the group is diverse, and that the diversity is recognized and respected (Hartley, 1997). In the videos viewed, three were evaluated on the effective and ineffective communication skills of the participants and suggestions made on how they could improve. The videos are titled, “Planning a Playground”, “Helping Annie”, and "The Politics of Sociology.

When this course started, I didn’t know what to expect. Quickly did I learn that it was more than just about a single individual and his or her ideas and behaviours. As the course progressed, I learned that it was very important to understand how small groups work. Reflecting upon my personal journey with my group, I have learnt that working in small groups requires commitment, synergy, communication, listening, conflict resolution and decision making and problem solving. This brings me upon my personal journey with my small group and how I have learned to work in such an environment.